Move macbook pro SSD to mac pro

what version of MacOS X is on the SSD, and very important, have you ever done a major upgrade, or is it the original major version of mac OS X that came with the MacBook? (the original "ships in the box" version will be MacBook specific, a major upgrade will boot "all appropriate Macs").

also the 2.5-in form factor SSD drives will not fit any Mac pro sled -- and the major ones available today are for the different sleds in the 2009 and later Mac Pros.

The safe way forward is to buy a new drive and the 10.6 DVD from the Apple Online Store.

Yes as long and OSX installation on 2010 is not the original installation since it would not have the drivers for the earlier Mac

Standard 2.5 inch drives can be used in older Mac Pro's by using your adaptor to convert it to fit the 3.5 drive inch sled.

I'd recommend against migrating like this, it would be safer to install a new HD in the Mac Pro & use Migration Assistant to move the user data & applications over. SSD's and HD's don't last forever, do you really want to rely on a 5 year old SSD? The Mac Pro is also in an unknown state - have you got backups if it kills the SSD?

You can use a Firewire 800 cable & target disk mode to quickly transfer data between each Mac if you choose to use 2 disks.

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support

When it comes time for a boot drive:

SAMSUNG XP941 MZHPU256HCGL-00004 M.2 256GB PCI Express MLC Enterprise Solid State Drive

M.2 Interface: PCIe Gen2 5Gb/s, up to 4 lanes

• 256MB LPDDR2 DRAM Buffer Memory
• 3 Year Warranty, Support Standard AHCI driver, Support Toggle 2.0 interface, End-to-End Data Protection, Support TRIM Command, RoHS Compliant, Halogen-Free Compliance
• Sequential Read: 1000MB/s, Sequential Write: 450 MB/s, Random Read (QD=32): 110K IOPS, Random Write (QD=32): 40K IOPS
• Works with most Z97 and X99 motherboards and Mac Pro. Not compatible with the MacBook Air or Retina MacBook Pro

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147366

M2P4A (PCIe 2.0 X4 to M.2 (NGFF) SSD Adapter

Allows user to use standard PCIE base M.2 SSD to PCIe x4 in the Desktop or Laptop.

Transparent to the operating system and does not require any software drivers.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IPO7YCU/

These are for now the least trouble, fastest SSD there is.

SATA Express meets the '09 MacPro - Bootable NGFF PCIE SSD ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... Last Page)

First seen in MacBook Pro 2013 using PCIe SSD blades but limited to 2x and not 4x

http://hothardware.com/News/Apple-Breaks-New-Ground-Again-with-PCI-Express-SSD-S torage-In-New-Mac-Pro-and-MacBook-Air/

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7085/the-2013-macbook-air-review-13inch/7

http://9to5mac.com/2013/11/04/latest-macbook-pro-15-gets-blazing-ssd-performance -thanks-to-4-channel-pcie/

I believe with the right adapter, the M.2 form factor used in those MacBook Air and rMBP can be used on different PCIe adapter and then be able to at least get SATA III or better performance. But would have to check that MacRumors thread. Would be much much better than as all other controllers are NOT transparent to OS.

Yours is likely "just" an SSD SATA II (SATA III debut in 2011 models, and PCIe-SSD in 2013), especially as it is from OWC.

I think it is unlikely that it could kill a disk, but when a computer is not in a booting state who knows what could be wrong with it. Boot a few times into kernel panics or forcibly shut it down a few times it could corrupt the boot partition etc.

Whilst that is not fatal it is not something I would like to do with my only copy of my data.

I didn't intend to scare you off the idea, just warn you about ageing disks & the possibility of bad things happening. Your new SSD negates part of that, just make enough backups & you should be fine 🙂

You would think that a universal 3.5" conversion bracket would do the trick, but it is not especially likely.

You need to maintain the connector toward the left side of the drive bay (as installed). The adapter that was included with mine had two U-rails that took up the correct amount of space, but needed to both be installed on one side of the drive (which was impossible). In addition, they wanted to screw into the side of the drive, and the sled only has holes on the bottom. Then to make it all worse, 2.5-in drives use DVD mounting screws (metric 3mm) where 3.5-in drives use Hard Drive mounting screws (American SAE #6-32).